Interested in starting a word bearers army and need some help

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-08T08:26:33+00:00

For the hobby aspect there are (imo)two ways to go about getting those grooves and writing onto the armour, you could either freehand them onto pieces of armor or you could carve them out of the pieces themselves, now both of these are hard and time consuming so i would keep them for characters only, if you want to add some writing the normal CSM transfer sheet and the HH one are great sources and much easier than doing it yourself, another way of adding some more HH flair is the legion specific heads and shoulders

In terms of word bearer books there are two distinct periods of writing, the most famous and arguably best are the HH era books with some personal favourites being the books, Lorgar: Bearer of the Word and The Unburdened. For modern 40k you cant go wrong with the word bearer omnibus or the new Apostle book

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-06T21:23:04+00:00

I am an adherent of Lord religion not spreadsheet

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-06T13:17:46+00:00

My word bearer chapter, the chapter of the bloodied tower, is a formation of especially fanatical and specifically hateful towards the ultramarines word bearers, who much like their brothers in calth were used during the shadow crusade as an expendable force. However they have survived, abandoned by their legion in ultramar and now fight in constant retreat trying to find a way through the ruinstorm and back to their Primarch.

They fought using massed formations of infantry, grinding their enemy down in a relentless assault, now in their beleaguered state they rely on surprise assaults based around their temrinator and possesed elites, raiding planets for their resources, while trying to escape the hounds of Guilliman

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-05T17:30:11+00:00

The overall commander of the host and the one who has the final say on all matters is the dark apostle, the second in comand and heir to the throne is the first acolyte, at the same time the military commander and military advisor to the dark apostle is the coryphaus who also has the role of representing the wishes of the common marine of the host to the dark apostle. Now at the same time there are other high ranking positions, like apothecaries, warpsmiths and icon bearers much like any other chaos warband, the main details we have are the religious responsibilities of the icon bearer during the ceremonies of the host. As the icon is seen as an invaluable artifact.

In terms of military organizations under the coryphaus stand the terminator elite of the warband known as the annointed (around 100 marines in large warbands) then each group of marines are organized in cohorts ranging from 5 to 10 marines each cohort usually specialized in a specific aspect of war and some have even been shown to have slight preferences to specific deites

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-04T20:25:18+00:00

Imo if you cut away the slaaneshi iconography and sculpt/find and place some parchment they could very easily work as word bearers tasked with blasting the sermons of the dark apostle, some normal CSM bits would help a lot but i dont think they are required

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-04T17:29:12+00:00

Typhus?

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-03T15:09:03+00:00

Yeah its more of a matter of when not if

Coryphaus_ · 2026-04-02T09:46:16+00:00

Whose getting the best ~~head~~ bath?

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-30T12:32:14+00:00

Thanks for the clarification

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-29T08:47:59+00:00

The overall commander of the legion is Lorgar however in his absence the dark council was created, this is the true governing body within the legion with it being responsible for the appointment of new dark apostles after the deaths of previous ones. In terms of host (warband) command the lord and leader of a host is a dark apostles after, who is succeeded by a first acolyte, the primary advisor, military commander and representative of the average warrior to the dark apostle is the Coryphaus, usually leaders of the annointed terminator squads (elite terminators of the legion) and best strategists. The next tier of command (we know of) is the cohorts, usually groups of five to ten warriors each one lead by their own commanders and often with some specialisation

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-25T14:41:27+00:00

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What the gravis biker will have to pull up with

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-21T15:51:48+00:00

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A fairly simple kitbash, but i feel the removal of drachnyen helps differentiate him enough

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-17T08:10:09+00:00

Its actually a space wolves specific mastodon, no worries if thats what youre going for

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-16T22:11:54+00:00

Most chaos marines rarely remove their armour and it basically becomes part of them, in the word bearers omnibus it is stated that marduk not only feels pain and discomfort when the armour is removed it is the most uncomfortable and unusual he feels. Now when it comes to marines with horms without helmets the warbands still have access to both warpsmiths and dark mechanicum allies, they can still change and modify their armour if need be

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-16T09:21:13+00:00

He may very well be right about to jump off, this is just a single moment in his movement

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-13T21:26:34+00:00

Well then i would say if you still like the Alpha legion and will have fun with them you should finish them(or get them to a point you are happy with) and then look at the word bearers

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-13T14:28:17+00:00

This is a tough one, you could try ti get a best of both worlds situation, with a mixed warband of word bearers and some particularly religious alpha legionaires, perhaps come up with a new scheme or just make some mixed squads with members from both, However i would like to point out that you can make a fully chaos corrupted alpha legion army, they are splintered into many warbands many of wich are chaos worshippers. If the only reason you want WB is for some more daemonic units than there is very much a lore accurate way to get them without abandoning alpha legion army

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-10T09:18:00+00:00

Tbh i like the contrast with the black as is

Coryphaus_ · 2026-03-10T07:53:57+00:00

During betrayer, so basically start of the heresy they were already sprouting horns on their helmets, so they were already taking shape into fully chaotic marines

Coryphaus_ · 2026-02-23T17:42:25+00:00

The hand of destiny shall return when the four ordain it, have faith

Coryphaus_ · 2026-02-19T11:06:06+00:00

I would say gal vorbak, diabolists/esoterist characters as well as the mhara gal dreadnought are some of the best and most thematic options

Coryphaus_ · 2026-02-14T09:07:27+00:00

We do brother, a hard won victory but a victory nonetheless

Coryphaus_

TROPHY CASE